By Douglas V. Gibbs
The act of giving is an important part of being a Christian. Christian charities are a large part of the aid to other countries, as well as to local communities. The act of giving, from a Christian point of view, is a special, personal thing that is an important part of the Christian's daily walk. The act of giving, to be truly out of love, must be a voluntary action from the goodness of one's heart. If the act of giving is through the mandate of taxation and redistribution by the government, it is not an act of giving. Forced redistribution by government is a sign that the citizen is a slave to the mandates of the government.
Since the act of giving is an important part of the Christian Faith, children are encouraged to give at every opportunity. The act of giving, with a little message from Scripture, is an act of love.
A school in New Mexico is demanding that Christian students stop their acts of kindness, suspending three students after they gave Krispy Kreme doughnuts with Bible Scriptures to teachers.
"These students are living their Christian beliefs by showing kindness," a representative of the Liberty Counsel said. "It is outrageous that the Roswell school officials are mean to these students solely because they are hostile to their Christian faith."
Principal Ruben Bolanos has been reported to have said that he wants student to cease all of their "Christian" acts.
"I don't like Christians. All they do is smile at you and then stab you in the back," the legal team's announcement reported the principal said.
The students wanted to express their appreciation for their teachers by giving them doughnuts. However, Krispy Kreme doughnuts is nearly a six hour round trip. To make sure they got the teachers fresh Krispy Kreme doughnuts, they made the drive, stayed overnight, got up at 3:00 a.m., filled their car's back seat with fresh doughnuts and got back to school on time to deliver the doughnuts.
When the doughnuts were handed out, a verse from Scripture was included. The response was one student being sent home immediately, and the other two spending Saturday morning sitting alone in the classroom for four hours as a punishment.
Punishment for giving.
Pastor Troy Smothermon said, "Our motives were not rebellious. If they were, we would have just bought a box of doughnuts down the street. The whole purpose was to encourage those in the school. We are challenging the constitutionality, but our motive here was to love. Faith without works is dead. We want them to know that we love them and that Christ loves them."
This is not the first time Christian acts in school has been attacked. There is currently, also, a lawsuit pending over the issue of freedom of religion after students distributed abstinence wristbands and plastic models of babies at 12 weeks gestation – to bring attention to the unborn.
The same Christian student organization has handed out sandwiches, hot chocolate and candy canes to members of the student body and faculty in the past, as well. They also have helped staff with the trash and fellow students with lunch trays.
They also distributed rocks with affirming words like 'U are wonderful' painted on one side and 'Psalm 139' on the other.
School officials claim that these actions by the Christians are offending people, therefore the way to shut it down is to silence their religious voice.
I am willing to bet, however, that if Muslims began to demand a prayer room, the school officials would bend over backwards to provide it.
From the point of view of the Constitution, the school officials have no leg to stand on. The idea of the separation of church and state is not in the Constitution, and in fact the Constitution prohibits the federal government from "prohibiting the free exercise, thereof."
However, this case is actually a state constitution situation. And the New Mexico State Constitution, Article II, Section 11, reads: Everyman shall be free to worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience, and no person shall ever be molested or denied any civil or political right or privilege on account of his religious opinion or mode of religious worship. No person shall be required to attend any place of worship or support any religious sect or denomination; nor shall any preference be given by law to any religious denomination or mode of worship.
In short, the Christians have every constitutional right, at the federal and state level, to do what they did.
-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary
No comments:
Post a Comment